Sunday, September 26, 2010

As is (tragically) the case with the Velvet Underground, there is precious little sync-sound footage of Iggy Pop and the Stooges in their heyday, although there was a fair amount of silent Super-8 film that was shot. (A guy I know purchased an old film projector at a flea market that came with silent footage of Iggy onstage circa 1973, believe it or not. He later sold it to Vh1).

As far as I am aware, the sole “live” footage that exists of the Stooges comes from the Cincinnati Summer Pop Festival of 1970 (AKA Midsummer Rock Festival). Appearing on a bill with Grand Funk Railroad, Alice Cooper, Mountain and Traffic, the group performs “T.V. Eye” and “1970” as Iggy leaps into the crowd—probably inventing crowd-surfing in the process—smearing peanut butter all over his chest. It’s one of the most primal and primitive rock and roll moments of all time and resulted in the iconic photograph above. Thank the gods that this footage exists, too. [For the Stooges section, go directly to 6 minutes in on the clip].

Note the square announcer’s reaction: “That’s… peanut butter!” Years later Stiv Bators of the Dead Boys took credit for bringing the tub of peanut butter from his home in Dayton, OH and putting it into the Iggster’s hands.

1 comment:

This is my favorite Iggy footage... followed by The Passenger live in Manchester and an interview he did on CBC (sadly without any live performance).

On an unrelated note, I was wondering if someday you could do a post explaining the backstory behind your picture of Public Enemy in Minor Threat shirts? That has always been a source of wonderment for me!